Promotur, Turismo Canarias - the organization responsible for the promotion of tourism in the Canary Islands is developing a long term Cruise Tourism Strategic Plan for the archipelago and has retained the Cruise Port and Destination Development firm of Bermello Ajamil and Partners Europe (BA Europe) to deliver this assignment.
The project kick-off and first stakeholder outreach meetings took place at the beginning of April in the Canary Islands. Representatives from the local port authorities of Puertos de Estado, tourism institutions from Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro, tourism promotional agencies, Canary Islands Government, Puertos de Canarias, international and local port agents, tour operators and other industry players are all part of the outreach efforts led by the Mark Ittel and Luis e Carvalho from the BA Europe Team.
The purpose of these initial meetings was to collect feedback from all the parties involved in the cruise business and to align everyone’s purposes to develop a common strategy and action plan where everyone shares responsibilities and contributes to the “re-discovery” of the Canaries as a cruise destination.
"Turismo de Canarias is keen to implement the study recommendations as we believe it is necessary to have a common strategy that illustrates our advantages over other competing destinations worldwide and helps us to improve all aspects that can weigh on the consolidation of the Canary Islands as a cruise destination in the coming years. We believe that there are great opportunities to further explore the untapped potential and offers on our 7 very different islands to regular visitors but also to further attract new consumer markets from the EU, US and beyond" , informed Tourism Promotur de Canarias.
The proximity of the islands to the Mediterranean, Madeira, Azores, main land Portugal, North Africa, West Africa and Cape Verde in addition to being strategically located for transatlantic and re-positioning cruises is an added value that will be further explored.
Recently the Canary Islands experienced an evolution in the number of cruise visitors reaching its peak in 2012 with 1.725.889 passengers on all islands.
In 2013 the number has decreased slightly to 1.624.473 passengers (-5,9%) which presents a very powerful argument to implement a global strategy for cruise tourism to assure a prosperous cruise tourism growth for the islands.
“This is a long-term project that will require a lot of work and commitment from everyone involved, and that is also the secret of our success – Team Work. Our ultimate goals include improving the image of Canarias as a cruise destination and ensuring that we keep growing our cruise business in a sustainable manner for years to come. In the process we wish not only for cruise lines to improve their revenue opportunities and guest satisfaction levels, but to also generate increased economic benefits from cruise to the local communities,” says Promotur.
